“Don’t think before you take the leap. Take the leap and then do all the crap thinking,” says Varun Agarwal, an Indian First-Generation entrepreneur, filmmaker, author and motivational speaker from Bengaluru.
Break Through:
In 2005, during his second year of Engineering in CMR Institute of Technology, Bengaluru Varun launched “Last Minute Films”, a video production company which makes music videos, Corporate and ad films. His videos became a YouTube hit with 3,50,000 views. He mockingly explains that in engineering everything is done at the last minute.Varun came into limelight when directing the music video for Bombay based band Pentagram, which gone viral on YouTube and got tv rights from VH1. Varun got a chance to direct a promotional music video for A.R.Rahman and Bollywood actress Preity Zinta. His video “how to overcome fear?” gained popularity among viewers.
Another milestone for Varun is ‘Alma Mater’, a merchandise company manufactures customised hoodies to schools and colleges. This happened sometime in 2009 when Varun and his friend Rohan Malhotra who met at Bengaluru’s oldest pub while reminiscing about the school days. Fuelled ourselves with beer to get the ideas, says Varun. Both started to merchandise hoodies as memorabilia to schools and colleges sketching on a tissue paper. Soon the business got kick-started by selling piles of hoodies across the nation.
Varun Agarwal As an Author:
Varun wrote “How I Braved Anu Aunty & co-founded Million dollar company” about his entrepreneurial hiccups and tantrums faced when he started thinking out of the box. Varun Agarwal during his interview said that ‘I always used to be shy when I am with strangers’.His mom and Anu Aunty played a pivotal role in his life. The ladies used to say “Think” before what you do and get a job. He jokingly said they were worried about not getting dowry if he’s not working in a corporate company. Soon after the release his autobiography sold a large number of copies and became the Best-Selling book. Varun’s unconventional thoughts made his family and friends horrified. During his TEDx talks Varun advice to people with an entrepreneurial passion not to think when you want to make a dream into reality. He states that the thought word made him to force study his engineering when got a year hiatus from directing videos when he was offered to work in for a Bombay Company.
The Lenovo deal
Lenovo launched its Flex range of products and the company has been looking for a young entrepreneur to endorse the product “The creative agency 22 feet got in touch with me. They wanted someone young and also someone who manages to live two lives at once. They liked what I had done so far and I ended up doing a commercial for them. Which I think is great because for an entrepreneur to endorse any brand is a major step forward,” says Varun.
Varun Agarwal with six other members started a new venture in 2018 called “Grades don’t matter” which help the students to create and be innovative.
Varun has spoken at more than 100 colleges and received 244 invites from colleges across India. Varun doesn’t believe in spending too much time seeking out the secrets to success. He believes that success is the result of taking timely decisions, hard work, learning from failure, and shifting the focus from thinking to doing. “The most fascinating thing is that the students are actually inclined towards entrepreneurship and are so enthusiastic about the whole thing,” he says. “We need more Anu aunties”.
